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Large corporate companies have always been good at dedicating funds to looking after the environment through the term ‘Corporate Responsibility.

But, Is Corporate Responsibility Dying?

With the recycling and environmental crisis getting worse year by year, it’s no surprise business advisers are now encouraging companies to go further than corporate responsibility.

The term has become a phrase used for brands to boost their image in the eyes of the public. Companies can do this in many ways; for example, toilet roll companies planing 2 trees for every 1 they cut down. It’s something they aren’t required to do but have done to be ‘environmentally friendly’ and to utilise in advertising and branding.

There has been a big shift since the time where companies planted trees to appear more environmentally friendly; meanwhile, they shipped goods all around the world in a bid for cheaper production.

Modern Corporate Responsibility

Unilever is a fantastic example of a company who have had to realign their core values to ensure their business is more sustainable in 2018. Take a look at their mission statement below:

Unilever’s corporate vision is “to make sustainable living commonplace. We believe this is the best long-term way for our business to grow.” This vision statement puts emphasis on sustainability, especially among consumers.

How does That Relate To My Business?

It’s always important to keep an eye on some of the top corporate brands, although they haven’t always got it right, they often lead the markets in their own way.

Unilever has set a standard for all companies by successfully driving their business towards sustainability and environmental awareness. Once consumers are aware of this, they will begin to expect it from every brand they come into contact with.

Now, we’re not expecting this to change consumer beliefs and morals overnight; but it’s a change that is and will begin to have an impact on other brands. When you consider how large the vegan movement has become over the last 5 years, it’s no surprise to see companies taking note and offering product ranges.

Step By Step

The best way to tackle this shift in consumer attitudes it to plan ahead. When your mobile phone contracts come up for renewal, be sure to let your clients know you’re donating the recycled devices to charity. Offer your clients the chance to donate to the gadget drive as well; going above and beyond corporate responsibility to help the community put money back into the local area.

If you have any questions on how to run a gadget drive, please get in touch with us. Our team can help you get started and plan your drive.

We’ve all heard of Dry January; it was started by charities to help raise money in one of the hardest months of the year. Since then it’s become an event that millions take part in to kick start the year in a healthy way. Unfortunately, the charities are no longer seeing the benefits of people donating as part of the process.

What is Dry January?

It started as a great way for charities to encourage people to raise money; since then it’s become a cultural challenge that takes place yearly. Since the expansion and the wide-spread knowledge of dry January, millions of people have taken the challenge to stop drinking throughout the month of January in a bid to be healthy.

The charities who started ‘Dry January’, giving us another reason to wish January was over, are CRUK’s Dryathlon and Alcohol Concerns. Alongside them, Macmillan created the campaign Go Sober for October; all of which have raised huge sums of money for charity.

Charity Ideas

Every year charities come up with ideas on how to get people to raise money; from the ice bucket challenge for ALS to Macmillan coffee mornings.

At Gadget Drive we’re encouraging as many as possible to take on a gadget drive; this would enable millions of people with a spare mobile phone to donate it to charity.

The benefit, it’s not charity specific, each drive offers the opportunity to donate to a charity of choice; this ensures that a wide range of charities are able to receive donations from multiple sources.

Why Donate Tech?

It costs the person donating absolutely nothing. Charities rely on regular donations to continue the great work they do. For this reason donating high-value items like old, unwanted mobile phones, tablets, computers and cameras are a great way to raise money.

Would you like to join in and start a Gadget Drive? Alternatively, if you don’t want to run one but you’d still like to donate the value of your phone to charity, you can use Cash In Your Gadgets. We’ll offer you a price for your old gadgets which you can donate to a charity of your choice.

Looking for a fundraising idea?

Millions of British citizens are guilty of holding onto old tablets, laptops and mobile phones; so why don’t charities put this to good use?

How can unwanted gadgets help?

Electrical gadgets are one of the most common things stocked up and stored in a house loft. Yet this could be a minefield for charities looking to raise urgent funds.

Gadget drive helps schools, charities and organisations sell gadgets which are donated to them through a gadget drive. Most people throw old laptops, tablets, computers and mobiles into the bin; yet these could be utilised by charities to raise funds and save the planet.
Just like selling your old mobile phone or tablet, you can donate it to a charity to do this for you, in return, the charity gets the funds raised from the goods.

Small Charities Struggling To Survive

Since the recession, lots of charities are struggling with a lack of donations. With the rise in costs including an increase in inflation, it’s understandable that people are unable to make frequent donations. Unfortunately, as incomes at small charities fall, the profile and fundraising in large charities grow.

If you’re reading this from a small charity looking at ways to fundraise, a gadget drive might be the answer.

How Can Charities Utilise Gadget Drives

People might not realise the value of the old gadgets they have laying around the house, with millions of mobile phones being bought every week it’s no surprise millions are being disregarded.

Imagine if 20 people donated an old working iPhone, this could amount to thousands, depending on the make and model of the phone. If you run a club or an organisation, there may even be people within your group willing to give their old phone to a good cause.

So if you’re a charity looking for fundraising ideas, consider running a gadget drive. You may be surprised by the number of spare mobiles people have! To get started today visit our website where you can find details about how we can help. www.gadgetdrive.co.uk

Times are tough and charity is probably the last thing on your mind at Christmas. It’s always hard to balance giving your family and friends everything they need; especially during the months of December, January and February.

December is packed with buying food for the biggest dinner of the year, followed by presents for everybody and their uncle. Not to mention payday which falls early in December meaning January is even tougher; it’s as if by the end of February someone decided to make the month shorter just to help us out!

Every year people around the world make resolutions in January to be better people; that could be done by giving time to a charity, consuming less junk food or wasting less. The beginning of a new year brings opportunity; time to take a step in a different direction and actively do something positive.

How can I help?

It’s always difficult to consider ways in which you can help. Let’s face it, very few of us are Bill Gates, so we can’t often afford to stick our hands in our pockets and make a large donation.
What if we told you we had a way in which you could donate a lot more than you think.

Charity Really does start at home

If we told you we’re sure you or your family received at least 1 gadget over the Christmas period; we’d probably be right.
9 times out of 10 the gadget it replaced is still sat where it was last used and will probably stay there until it’s ‘tidied’ into a drawer somewhere.

Donating your old gadgets for a charitable cause can enable you to donate far more than you usually would. For example; an iPhone 5s 64gb can be donated for around £77, which is probably a lot than the change you’d donate in your pocket during a tough December and January.

Charity Can Save The Planet

Working with Gadget Drive can help you raise money for a local or personal cause. Alongside charity, it’s important to remember Gadget Drive recycles and restores gadgets to ensure they are never chucked into landfills or transported to other countries to be disposed of.

For more information on how you can create a Gadget Drive for your local school, charity or club please visit our website. If you’re planning to donate to a Gadget Drive and would like more information you can also find out more details on our blog and website.

It’s always tough to try and find a way to help a charity, raise money for society and benefit the next generation.

If you’re not the type of person to go skydiving, climb Kilimanjaro or bath in baked beans, it doesn’t mean you cant help a charity or a deserving cause.

How you can help

Raising money for charity isn’t just about giving cash; there are probably 3 main ways to help; taking on a challenge where people sponsor you, giving up your time to help and donating either belongings or money.

At Gadget Drive we’re dedicated to empowering companies or organisations to raise money through the recycling of gadgets including laptops, PC’s, tablets, mobiles and cameras.

How does it work?

Our aim is to encourage as many people to donate gadgets to help raise money for schools, clubs and organisations.
Gadet drive tries to make it as simple as possible for an organisation to publicise their recycling drive. We can help you organise your gadget drop off location, advertising on social media, word of mouth and posters. Potential donors can go online and check their gadgets acceptability and value before donating.

At the end of the event

Once all of the gadgets have been collated we’ll collect them for free, testing each item to ensure they are acceptable and in working order. We’ll be sure to provide a report to enable you to see what was collected and the final value. We’ll then promptly provide a cheque or bank transfer for the club, school or charity to spend as needed.

How we can help

It’s always scary taking on a charity challenge and it’s no different with a gadget drive. We understand when you’re climbing the three peaks challenge you have to train and prepare; this is no different, but we’ve tried to help.

We can provide emails, poster designs and templates to help you publicise your drive and reach your audience. We can also provide you with someone to help guide you into making your fundraising event a success.

If you have any questions about how to get started please visit our website. If you’re planning a charity event and would like to do a Gadget Drive; please don’t forget to let us know how you get on, we’d love to share your success story and encourage others to do the same.

Many of us will remember jumble sales during our school days to raise funds for a new mini-bus, sports facilities or refurbishment. The modern version may look very different – using a web site to organising the recycling of old smartphones, tablets and other IT equipment, raising funds for schools and educating pupils about the environment and recycling and being a good consumer.

Cash in your Gadgets has recently started a fund-raising service for UK schools, called Gadget Drive, enabling them to sell their old computers, laptops, mobile phones, tablet pcs and digital cameras.

How the service works

The idea of Gadget Drive is simple. Encourage as many people as possible to donate gadgets in the form of their old technology, to help schools fundraising and educate pupils about recycling.

The school tells its staff, pupils, parents, governors and other interested parties about fundraising plan. It gives a date and location where the donated gadgets can be dropped off.

Schools can check how much each gadget is likely to be worth via a valuation feature on the Gadget Drive web site. The price of items depends on their condition, age and technical specifications.

A five-year old laptop that was a high-range model when bought may have a value of up to £150. Average pay-out for laptops is around £60.

Apple and Samsung smartphones can be worth more than £100.

Quick and easy

Gadget Drive collects donated items for free, tests each item and sends a report to the school listing all donated items and how much we paid for them. We pay the school, by cheque or bank transfer, within a couple of days.

Could schools make more money by selling old gadgets privately online through sites such as eBay? Maybe, although there’s no guarantee. Also, you’d have to include the cost of the time staff spend queuing in post offices to post gadgets and dealing with customer queries and complaints.

It’s far easier to let Gadget Drive do the hard work for you. We already help thousands of consumers and businesses get cash for their unwanted gadgets and have been featured in UK national newspapers and on TV programmes including Channel 4’s money-saving programme, SuperScrimpers.

We’re confident that schools can boost their fund-raising by selling old gadgets.

UK schools spend hundreds of millions of pounds a year on information communication and technology. In our experience, most schools have draws full on unused or unwanted IT.

It soon adds up. And when schools get parents involved the amount of money they can easily raise easily raise thousands of pounds through selling and recycling old IT gadgets.

“It was very easy to organise – the company were very customer focussed in arranging a suitable collection time and providing the necessary documentation. We were delighted with the money that was raised!”

“We’ve recommended the service to local schools – both primary and secondary.”

We understand how important it is to protect your data and stop it being misused. Your data is safe with us. We comply with all the main environmental and data protection laws. We can also wipe data from your machines when we buy them (hard drives are overwritten with data three times and we give you a “data wipe” certificate showing the hard drives individual serial number, the method of data wiping and date of erasure.).

Here are some tips for schools to maximise cash from your old gadgets, get an A* for fund-raising … and perhaps a new school mini bus.

Make the purpose of your fundraising as clear as possible. Let donors know the time scale for the Gadget Drive and where items will be dropped off.

Talk to your school IT manager about what old electronics the school can recycle as part of the fund-raising drive.

Combine the Gadget Drive with a recycling or fundraising education week.

Make the Gadget Drive Donation point to be part of a Sports Day or school fair.

Ask local businesses to donate old laptops, computers, phones, cameras or other gadgets

Finding fundraising ideas for schools which engage students and parents alike can be tricky, but one of the best ways to achieve this is to make sure that any project you establish is targeted to take advantage of seasonal trends. Here are just a few ideas to inspire you in the coming year.

Spring – Seek Gadget Donations
The start of the year is a great time to encourage kids and their parents to donate gadgets that they are no longer using so that they can be recycled and generate money for their school. This is because in the post-Christmas period plenty of people will have received new devices which have rendered old electronics redundant, so rather than letting them sit in a cupboard at home, people will be happy to part ways with them while also doing their bit for a good cause.

Summer – Sponsored Outdoor Activities
When the weather improves and kids are itching to get outside, the appeal of sponsored activities in the great outdoors will return, and you can encourage children to get involved in a variety of ways. This does not solely have to revolve around sports but can encompass any manner of things that can take place in the great outdoors, from orienteering to car washing.

Autumn – Creative Fundraising
As the nights get darker earlier and the Great British Bake-Off returns to our TV screens, the autumn is a great time to try fundraising with projects which encourage kids to get creative. Halloween-themed bake sales can be a good idea, although there are plenty of other autumnal events around which fundraising can be themed in this way.

Winter – Festive Fun
Christmas brings with it the promise of presents, food and precious time away from school. But in the run-up to the festive season there are lots of fundraising opportunities which present themselves to schools. From fancy-dress days to seasonal plays and concerts, finding fundraising ideas for schools during the season of giving will not be too difficult. Christmas is also one of the main times when people will want to get rid of their old gadgets as they will be replaced by new ones. Start your Gadget Drive before the holidays to raise awareness and then collect at the start of the new school term.

Sign up to the Gadget Drive site to set up your own fundraising initiative, and get in touch if you need more information about how you can convert old unwanted electronic devices into cash for your local school.

Raising money for schools has traditionally relied on a number of well-established tactics, whether in the form of bring and buy sales, sponsored activities or direct collections. And whatever the cause, fundraising for schools should not only be an effective way of generating much-needed cash but should also engage children and enhance their learning experience.

This is why taking advantage of gadget donations is such a good idea, since by collecting unwanted electronic items from families connected to the school and then sending them to be recycled, it is possible to both raise money and increase awareness of the ecological risks associated with the failure to properly dispose of e-waste.

Diverse Gadget Donations Accepted
While some fundraising projects involving gadget donations will focus on a single type of device, such as mobile phones, the reality is that you do not need to limit yourself to requesting that students bring in a particular type of gadget. Everything from smartphones and tablets to laptop computers and digital cameras can be converted into cash after collection, enabling parents to clear out the clutter at home in the process.

Once gadgets have been collected, they can be sent to be recycled free of charge and payment should be issued promptly, which is why a growing number of schools are embracing this approach to fundraising.

Ecological Concerns
From an educational point of view, being able to encourage kids to engage with the idea of recycling gadgets has obvious benefits. They are growing up in an age when electronic items are seen as disposable and things such as smartphones get replaced every year or two, so it is important to instil in them a responsible attitude towards how these items should be treated after they are no longer in use.

Collecting gadgets to sell for recycling will be easy to link in with these important lessons, and since there are millions of unwanted devices gathering dust in homes across the country, it should be easy to generate a lot of attention for your cause once a project has gained momentum.

If you want to do more to promote fundraising for schools while also help the environment by limiting e-waste, sign up to the Gadget Driver site to get started.

With recent budget cuts across the nation having a further detrimental effect on many schools, the drive for fundraising for schools can seem like a never ending task. In August 2015, the Department of Education showed that in 213-14 the average amount of state funding given to Local Authority Schools is just £4,767 per pupil. However, it would seem to be largely a lottery in terms of allowances based on postcode and type of school (England’s Free schools received c. 60% more funding per pupil than Local Authority Schools). While there are many contributing factors in the decline of funds per pupil received by schools, the outcome is that their offerings are having to be stripped back in terms of extra-curricular offering but in some cases also the range of GCSE subjects covered and the number of staff employed.

As such fundraising for schools has never been more important for ensuring that the nation’s children are receiving a well-rounded education including the pastoral elements of the school system. As stated, this state of fundraising can seem like a never ending task, with the resources of not just parents but of families and friends of people with children being faced with requests for donations.

Gadget Drive offer a different solution for your fundraising for schools needs and it is 100% free to enact with our company. In short, instead of requesting money in return for novelty amusements (think head shaving and baths of beans) or more cake than the average family really needs, you request that people donate their old gadgets. This means that those old laptops and smart phones can actually be recycled rather than gathering dust in the spare room. This is a great way for people to donate gadgets that are disused and would ordinarily end up in the waste. Gadget Drive have an online valuation tool, which allows those wishing to donate to see the potential value of their donations. Collection of the gadgets is done by our company, so other than letting people know about the fundraising project, all you have to do is await the funds from the donations to come in. However, if you wanted to take a more proactive approach you could incorporate the Gadget Drive into lesson plans so pupils more fully understand the recycling process and where their old gadgets will go.

Gadget Drive brings fundraising for schools into the 21st century and super charges your schools fundraising efforts. Gadget Drive fundraising for schools unlocks the value held in the millions of old, used gadgets lying around in people’s homes across the UK.

The concept behind Gadget Drive fundraising for schools couldn’t be simpler; your school needs funds but the people you ask to help won’t always have spare cash to give. Rather than cash, most households have old laptops, mobile phones, digital cameras or tablet pc’s gathering dust, Gadget Drive turns these old items into cash donations for your school.

Fundraising for schools presents particular ethical challenges. Schemes such as Tesco’s Computers 4 Schools, have been massively successful in terms of public uptake and direct benefits to schools but the implication of children potentially being indoctrinated by a commercial companies branding is difficult for many to ignore.

Gadget Drive fundraising for schools removes any conflict of interest and creates a virtuous circle of benefits for all parts. The sole purpose of Gadget Drives is recycling gadgets for the school to raise funds as easily and as effectively as possible.

The recycling drive itself has intrinsic benefits to the school’s students and teachers by graphically demonstrating the issues created by the modern world’s rampant consumerism.

Gadget Drive fundraising for schools is open to any school in the UK regardless of size, status or reasons for fundraising. Many schools have dire fundraising needs which are not being met by state funding whilst others have the fortune position of being able to use a Gadget Drive to raise funds for external good causes. Whatever the reason, Gadget Drive fundraising for Schools offers a unique opportunity to educate students on the benefits of recycling and raise much needed funds for very good causes.

If you want fresh, innovative fundraising ideas for schools or community organisations then get in touch today and we will be delighted to give you more details on how to create a Gadget Drive.